This Deleted Scene Almost Made Zootopia Super Depressing

June 29, 2016

Madeline

If you’ve seen Disney’s Zootopia, you know it’s a funny, lighthearted movie about a rabbit and a fox teaming up to save the day. And if you haven’t seen it…well… just trust me, it’s a funny, lighthearted movie about a rabbit and a fox teaming up to save the day.

For all its cheeriness, though, Zootopia also subtly addressed issues of social control, prejudice, and incarceration by exploring the distinction between predators and prey. In the final version of the flick, predatory animals have naturally evolved to not eat the animals they’d normally kill. But in an earlier version, there was a much more inhumane—and frankly, sad as hell—spin on that.

In a new deleted scene from the movie, we see Judy Hopps and her pal Nick Wilde witnessing a “taming party,” during which a bear cub is given a shock collar that sets off when he gets too excited, keeping his predatory instincts in check. The idea of having a ritualized punishment in order to be accepted into society is super dark and depressing—but luckily, it looks like the scene never made it past the storyboard phase. Who else is thrilled Disney ditched this idea?!